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A pink-collar worker is someone working in career fields historically considered to be women's work. This includes many clerical, administrative, and service jobs as well as care-oriented jobs in therapy, nursing, social work, teaching or child care. While these jobs may also be filled by men, they have historically been female-dominated (a tendency that continues today, though to a somewhat lesser extent) and may pay significantly less than white-collar or blue-collar jobs.
Women's work – notably with the delegation of women to particular fields within the workplace – began to rise in the 1940s, in concurrence with World War II.
Louise Kapp Howe popularized the term pink collar in her 1977 book Pink Collar Workers: Inside the World of Women’s Work. She used the term to describe jobs predominantly occupied by women, such as secretarial, clerical, teaching, nursing, and other caregiving or service roles. These positions were seen as extensions of traditional domestic responsibilities and were characterized by lower pay, limited career advancement opportunities, and a lack of prestige compared to "blue-collar" or "white-collar" jobs. Howe’s analysis went beyond simply identifying these roles; she explored how social expectations, gender norms, and structural inequalities confined women to these positions. She critiqued how these jobs were undervalued despite their essential contributions to the economy and society. Her work aimed to raise awareness about the economic and social disparities faced by women in the workforce and to advocate for the recognition and improvement of conditions in these roles. While Baumol's earlier usage of pink collar focused on economic categorizations, Howe expanded the term into a cultural and feminist critique, framing it as part of the broader struggle for gender equality in labour.
According to the 2016 United States Census analyzed in Barnes, et al.'s research paper, more than 95% of the construction workforce is male. Due to the low population of women outside of the childcare or social workforce, state governments are miscalculating economic budgets by not accounting for most female pink-collar workers. Generally, less government funding is allocated to professions and work environments that traditionally employ and retain a greater percentage of women, for example, education and social work. From the research conducted by Tiffany Barnes, Victoria Beall, and Mirya Holman, discrepancies for government representation of pink-collar jobs could primarily be due to legislatures and government employees having the perspective for only white-collar jobs and most people making budgetary decisions are men. A white collar-job is typically administrative.
As explained in Buzzanell et al.'s research article, maternity leave is the time off from work a mother takes after having a child, either through childbirth or adoption. In 2010, the International Labour Office explained that maternity leave is usually compensated by the employer's company, but several countries do not follow that mandate, including the United States. Results from "Standpoints of Maternity Leave: Discourses of Temporality and Ability" state that many new mothers employed in pink-collar work have keyed disability or sick leave instead of time off for maternity leave.
Pink-collar occupations may include:
Western women began to develop more opportunities when they moved into the paid workplace, formerly of the male domain. In the mid 19th and early 20th century women aimed to be treated as equals to their male counterparts, notably in the Seneca Falls Convention. In 1920 American women legally gained the suffrage, marking a turning point for the American women's suffrage movement; yet race and class remained as impediments to voting for some women.
At the turn of the 19th century into the 20th, large numbers of single women in the United States traveled to large cities such as New York where they found work in factories and , working for low pay operating sewing machines, sorting feathers, rolling tobacco, and other similar menial tasks.Gourley 2008, p. 103
In these factories, workers frequently breathed dangerous fumes and worked with flammable materials.Humowitz Weissman 1978, p. 239 In order for factories to save money, women were required to clean and adjust the machines while they were running, which resulted in accidents where women lost their fingers or hands. Many women who worked in the factories earned meager wages for working long hours in unsafe conditions and as a result lived in poverty.
Throughout the 20th century, women such as Emily Balch, Jane Addams, and Lillian Wald were advocates for evolving the roles of women in America.Gourley 2008, p. 99. These women created and launched missions in overcrowded squalid immigrant neighborhoods to offer social services to women and children.
In addition, women gradually became more involved with church activities and came to take on more leadership roles in various religious societies. The women who joined these societies worked with their members, some of whom were full-time teachers, nurses, Missionary, and social workers to accomplish their leadership tasks. The Association for the Sociology of Religion was the first to elect a woman president in 1938.
In addition, , an already "feminized" and accepted profession for women, expanded during wartime. In 1917, Louisa Lee Schuyler opened the Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing, which was the first to train women as professional nurses.Gourley 2008, p. 123 After completing training, female nurses worked in hospitals or more predominantly in field tents.
World War II marked the emergence of large numbers of women working domestically in industrial jobs to assist in the war effort as directed under the War Manpower Commission which recruited women to fill war manufacturing jobs.
Notably, American women in World War II joined the armed services and were stationed domestically and abroad through participation in non-combat military roles and as medical personnel. One thousand female pilots joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots, one hundred and forty thousand women joined the Women's Army Corps and one hundred thousand women joined the United States Navy as nurses through WAVES in addition to administrative staff.
Female secretaries were also popular. They were instructed to be efficient, tough, and hardworking while also appearing soft, accommodating, and subservient. Women were expected to be the protector and partner to their boss behind closed doors and a helpmate in public. These women were encouraged to go to charm schools and express their personality through fashion instead of furthering their education.
Social work became a female-dominated profession in the 1930s, emphasizing a group professional identity and the casework method.Ware 1982, p. 74 Social workers gave crucial expertise for the expansion of federal, state and local government, as well as services to meet the needs of the Depression.
Teachers in primary and secondary schools remained female, although as the war progressed, women began to move on to better employment and higher salaries.Ware 1982, p. 102 In 1940, teaching positions paid less than $1,500 a year and fell to $800 in rural areas.
Women scientists found it hard to gain appointments at universities. Women scientists were forced to take positions in high schools, state or women's colleges, governmental agencies and alternative institutions such as libraries or museums. Women who took jobs at such places often did clerical duties and though some held professional positions, these boundaries were blurred. Some found work as .
Mostly women were hired as librarians, who had been professionalized and feminized from the late 19th century. In 1920, women accounted for 88% of librarians in the United States.
Two-thirds of the American Geographical Society (AGS)'s employees were women, who served as librarians, editorial personnel in the publishing programs, secretaries, research editors, copy editors, proofreaders, research assistants and sales staff. These women came with credentials from well-known colleges and universities and many were overqualified for their positions, but later were promoted to more prestigious positions.
Although female employees did not receive equal pay, they did get sabbaticals to attend university and to travel for their professions at the cost of the AGS. Those women working managerial and library or museums positions made an impact on women in the work force, but still encountered discrimination when they tried to advance.
In the 1940s, clerical work expanded to occupy the largest number of women employees, this field diversified as it moved into commercial service.Susan M. Hartmann, The Home Front and Beyond (Boston, MA: G.K. Hall &Co., 1982), p. 94. The average worker in the 1940s was over 35 years old, married, and needed to work to keep their families afloat.Humowitz Weissman 1978, p. 314
During the 1950s, women were taught that marriage and domesticity were more important than a career. Most women followed this path because of the uncertainty of the post-war years.Humowitz Weissman 1978, p. 326 Suburban housewives were encouraged to have hobbies like bread making and sewing. The 1950s housewife was in conflict between being "just a housewife" because their upbringing taught them competition and achievement. Many women had furthered their education deriving a sense of self-worth.Humowitz Weissman 1978, p. 332
As mentioned in the research article by Patrice Buzzanell, Robyn Remke, Rebecca Meisenbach, Meina Liu, Venessa Bowers, and Cindy Conn, as of 2016, pink-collar jobs are quickly growing in demand by both men and women. Professions within pink-collar jobs are more likely to be consistent with job security and the need for employment, but salary and advancements seem to be much more slow-growing factors.
In the early 1900s women's pay was one to three dollars a week and much of that went to living expenses.Archer, Jules (1991). Breaking Barriers (New York: The Penguin Group), p. 27. In the 1900s female tobacco strippers earned five dollars a week, half of what their male coworkers made and made six to seven dollars a week compared to a cutter's salary of $16.Woloch 1984, p. 27 This differed from women working in factories in the 1900s as they were paid by the piece, not receiving a fixed weekly wage.Humowitz Weissman 1978, pp. 236–237 Those that were pinching pennies pushed themselves to produce more product so that they earned more money. Women who earned enough to live on found it impossible to keep their salary rate from being reduced because bosses often made "mistakes" in computing a worker's piece rate.Humowitz Weissman 1978, p. 240 As well as this, women who received this kind of treatment did not disagree for fear of losing their jobs. Employers would frequently deduct pay for work they deemed imperfect and for simply trying to lighten the mood by laughing or talking while they worked. In the 1937 a woman's average yearly salary was $525 compared to a man's salary of $1,027. In the 1940s two-thirds of the women who were in the labor force suffered a decrease in earnings; the average weekly paychecks fell from $50 to $37. This gap in wage stayed consistent, as women in 1991 only earned seventy percent of what men earned regardless of their education.
Later on in the 1970s and 1980s as women began to fight for equality, they fought against discrimination in jobs where women worked and the educational institutions that would lead to those jobs. In 1973 the average salaries for women were 57% compared to those of men, but this gender earnings gap was especially noticeable in pink-collar jobs where the largest number of women were employed.Humowitz Weissman 1978, p. 364 Women were given routine, less responsible jobs available and often with a lower pay than men. These jobs were monotonous and mechanical often with assembly-line procedures.Humowitz Weissman 1978, p. 304
Being educated was an expectation for women entering the paying workforce, despite the fact that their male equivalents did not need a high school diploma.Humowitz Weissman 1978, p. 316 While in college, a woman would experience extracurricular activities, such as a sorority, that offered a separate space for the woman to practice types of social service work that was expected from her.Woloch 1984, p. 404
However, not all of a woman's education was done in the classroom. Women were also educated through their peers through "dating". Men and women no longer had to be supervised when alone together. Dating allowed men and women to practice the paired activities that would later become a way of life.
New women's organizations sprouted up working to reform and protect women in the workplace. The largest and most prestigious of these organizations was the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), whose members were conservative middle-class housewives. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was formed after women shirtwaist makers went on strike in New York City in 1909. It started as a small walkout, with a handful of members from one shop and grew to a force of ten of thousands, changing the course of the labor movement forever. In 1910 women allied themselves with the Progressive Party who sought to reform social issues.
Another organization that grew out of women in the workforce, was the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. The Women's Bureau regulated conditions for women employees. As female labor became a crucial part of the economy, efforts by the Women's Bureau increased. The Bureau pushed for employers to take advantage of "women-power" and persuaded women to enter the employment market.
In 1913 the ILGWU signed the well-known "protocol in the Dress and Waist Industry" which was the first contract between labor and management settled by outside negotiators. The contract formalized the trade's division of labor by gender.
Another win for women came in 1921 when Congress passed the Sheppard–Towner Act, a welfare measure intended to reduce infant and maternal mortality; it was the first federally funded healthcare act. The act provided federal funds to establish health centers for prenatal and child care. Expectant mothers and children could receive health checkups and health advice.
In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed making it the first federal law against sex discrimination, equal pay for equal work (at least removed explicit base pay discrepancies based on sex), and had employers allow both men and women applicants to open positions if they qualified from the start.
Unions also became a major outlet for women to fight against the unfair treatment they experienced. Women who joined these types of unions stayed before and after work to talk about the benefits of the union, collect dues, obtain charters, and form bargaining committees.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was approved in May 1933. The NRA negotiated codes designed to rekindle production. It raised wages, shortened workers' hours, and increased employment for the first time maximizing hour and minimizing wage provisions benefiting female workers. The NRA had its flaws however, it only covered half of the women in the workforce particularly manufacturing and trade. The NRA regulated working conditions only for women with a job and did not offer any relief for the two million unemployed women who desperately needed it.
The 1930s proved successful for women in the workplace thanks to federal relief programs and the growth of unions. For the first time women were not completely dependent on themselves, in 1933 the federal government expanded in its responsibility to female workers. In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act grew out of several successful strikes. Two million women joined the workforce during the Great Depression despite negative public opinion.
" Pink ghetto" can also describe the placement of female managers into positions that will not lead them to the board room, thus perpetuating the "glass ceiling". This includes managerial roles in human resources, customer service, and other areas that do not contribute to the corporate "bottom line". While such roles allow women to rise in rank as managers, their careers may eventually stall and they may be excluded from the upper echelons.
Traditionally, Feminism in public relations focused on gender equality, but new scholarship makes claims that focusing on social justice would better aid feminist cause in the field. This brings the idea of intersectionalism to the pink collar ghetto. The issue is not caused by what women lack as professionals, but caused by larger societal injustices and interlocking systems of oppression that systematically burden women.
Proponents of this "pink collaring" theory have cited a 2016 New York Times article by columnist Claire Cain Miller. In "As Women Take Over a Male-Dominated Field, the Pay Drops," Miller summarized a 2009 longitudinal study by sociologists Asaf Levanon, Paula England, and Paul Allison demonstrating a consistent twentieth-century trend wherein US occupations with a higher percentage of women offered lower median hourly wages than comparable fields that retained male majorities. Miller overlooked both the historical nature of Levanon, England, and Allison’s findings and a problem that the authors themselves acknowledged, namely, that they did not investigate the mechanisms driving gender-based workplace devaluation or how resistant it might be to change. Examining more current census data and using different analytical tools, the data scientist Felix Busch demonstrated in 2018 that occupational devaluation due to feminization has been steadily declining since the mid-twentieth century, that it does not affect all fields equally, and that some workers experience a wage benefit from the feminization of their field. He also showed that a field’s historical gender associations have more impact on wages than the field’s current gender composition. This and other research disproves the notion that an occupation’s gender composition inevitably affects compensation. Favoring men in hiring decisions because of their gender is illegal in the United States under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
An analysis of 2016 United States Census data shows that approximately 78% of men were employed in cleaning and maintenance, engineering and science, production and transportation, protective services, and construction, while only 25% worked in healthcare support, personal care, education, office administration support, and social services.
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